Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-03-03
MISTAKES IN FEEDING.


How Indigestion and It's Injurious Results
| Are Produced in Horses.
Horses suffer from mistakes in feed
ing more than any other farm animals
and are consequently more subject to
indigestion and its injurious results.
Killing by kindness Is by no means
unusual with horses. The alimentary
and digestive organs and their func-
tons in horses are somewhat peculiar,
and require to be well studied that the
feeding may be based on rules laid
down in accordance with precise prin-
ciples. 1t is impossible for these rules
to be precise in every particular case,
for horses differ very much both in
their habits of eating and in their abili-
ty to digest their food, and the princi
Piles involved should therefore be
known and understood, when it will
not be difficult to adapt the feeding to
the conditions and requirements of each
case.
| The food must be of the right kind,
and it is quite safe to say that in gen.
eral horses are the worst fed of any of
our domestic animals. The winter
feeding is usually hay. chiefly clover,
or partly clover, and corn. These
foods are too rich and do not contain
| sufficient crude fiber to fill the stomach
| and bowels so as to insure healthful ac-
ton. The clover is too heterogeneous
and the corn is too carbonaceous, and
the effects of these foods are to exert
too much certain organs, which are
thrown into disorder. The excessive
nitrogen of the clover must pass off
through the kidneys or it remains in
the blood, causing various inf1am-
matory disorders, and at the least that
very common irritation which produces
eruption on the skin and itchiness that
| induces the animal to rub itself
until the hair is removed or the
skin itself is worn off. The excessive
carbon of the corn affects the liver,
and this in turn interferes with the
ordinary organs, or it disturbs the ac-
ton of the lungs and prevents the
proper publication of the blood. The
common ultimate results of these dis
orders are farcy, purpura hemorrhagica
or anasarca, and eventually, no doubt,
CHAMBERS is induced by the final poi
soning of the blood. But these are all
indirect and ultimate consequences of
indigestion of the food, and there are
many direct disorders resulting from it
which cause a good deal of trouble.
Some of these are cOlic-spasmodic-
which is most serious, and tiatulent,
windy or tympanitic, which is most
common. The latter, however, some
times results fatally by producing rupt-
ure of the stomach or bowels by reason
of the great distention of these organs
by the accumulated gas, which can not
escape, and which is caused by the
fermentation of the undigested food.
At times the nervous system is in
volved, and the common staggers, or
apoplexy caused by congestion of
the brain, results; or in bad
cases the more serious mad staggers,
or frenzy Phrenitis), occurs, with
usually fatal results. Paralysis, COM
plete or partial, of the spinal system
of nerves also results from indigestion,
and breaking down, inability to- stand
or move, with sudden falling in har-
ness or on the road, takes place.
These instances show the serious
nature of this disorder, which is not
surprising when we remember how the
food is the sustenance of the animal,
supporting all its organs and control
ing all it's vital functions, and, when it
fails to do its office, necessarily all
these fail with it.
Prevention is better than cure; and
a few simple rules in regard to feeding
and watering may secure immunity
from these disorders. The stomach of
a horse is comparatively small, and
concentrated food, or, if the food is
bulky, numerous small meals are re-
quired to secure perfect digestion.
Ample time should be given for
feeding, and if the animal
has a greedy and voracious
habit and swallows its food hastily, this
should be cut into chaff or ground into
meal and mixed together with sufficient
water to avoid sloppiness, and no more.
Cut feed is always more digestible than
long hay and whole grain, and the
common supposition that it makes a
horse soft and easily sweated is not
well founded, for the condition OF
moistness in which it is given is only a
preliminary to the moistening of the
food by mastication. A sufficient Sc
erection of saliva during the feeding is
indispensable to digestion, as the
salivary fluid is true digestive agent,
and dissolves starch and converts it in
to sugar. A regular ration of salt is
also required for digestion, as the acid
of salt (hydro-chloric) is present in the
digestive fluid of the stomach, and
some soda (the alkali of SALTY is
always present in the bile,
which is one of the important
agents of digestion. Mixed food
is better than any one, for one helps
considerably to digest the other Thus
bran helps in the digestion of corn and
oats, and so does linseed meal, beside
providing the necessary oil required
for complete digestion of crude fibre
and heterogeneous matter.
Water should always be given before
feeding and never Immediately after
ward. Collie is often produced by copi-
Gus watering soon after eating, and
also by watering when the animal is
hot and weary from work; the stomach,
being chilled, is for the time incapable
of digesting any food. Light feeding
is to be given during hard or rapid
work, and the full feed is only given
after sufficient rest. Overlooking is tc
be specially avoided, and regularity is
I